Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The Beginning

Well for anyone who knows me, they are probably in shock that I have started to blog...Writing is not/never has been/most likely never will be my strong point. As my freshman college writing professor denounced to me, "You have a penchant for writing superfluous nothing" or as my highschool English teacher said, "you need to write LESS and say MORE."
I guess I have been doing a great deal of thinking lately about life. Maybe it started when I saw the sign that read: "ATTENTION SENIORS- as of March 31st you will no longer be able to bursar" (eeks!!!), or when I went and had my senior portraits taken with cap and gown (double eeks!), or perhaps it was my realization this past weekend that this was last fall break I was going to experience during my undergraduate college career. Time sure has flown by these last four years- definitely not at a loss for memories, the good- the bad- and (oh yes) the ugly. But I remember where it all began....
We pulled up in front of Hill House in my moms silver minimum; actually we pulled up after circling the block a few times because each time we passed Hill, I kept say, "No- that's not it. That place looks like a dungeon." Either my paretns were taking pitty on me (after all, I had cried for a good 24 hours after I got my housing assignment because I was 'quad reject') or they were absorbed in their own thoughts of sending their first born off to college. After getting the bright pink parking permit, we turned off the car and began to unload. My parents were great, my moms super organizational skills and my dads attention to detail made move-in easy (well as easy as it could be, considering that there was only 1 (yes 1!) old and rickety elevator to move in all 500+ residents). After unpacking and realizing that my room was indeed the size of some parents master bathrooms and/or walk-in closets, I decided to go get my Penn Card. Yup, this would be the first taste of belonging to Penn (not at Penn~that came later, but to Penn)--$40,000+ a year and they still charge you $15 for an ID.
Standing back in the hill lobby,with sweat rolling down my neck and my parents beginning to look worn and weary, I looked around and said, "what is this place?!?! IF do not see one American looking boy, I'm outta here- get me a transfer application!" My parents burst out laughing but I was dead serious. I found out later that because I moved in 5 days early (I was headed off to the freshman Pennacle program) that it was actually international student move-in day....phew, there would be some "American" boys, and by that all I meant was boys like I went to high school with- upper middle class, preppy white guys who are socially awkward unless they are drunk and at that have no clue what a relationship is. But I digress, not to say that I wasn't steadfast about longing for my "home boys" but I was definitely blind to the world of opporunity and very unique and amazing people that I would meet over the next four years.
So I guess that's it. That's they way it all began. Four years have quickly passed and I love to reflect back on all the fun (and maybe some of the less than fun) times here.

Stay tuned....